


Body Language

by feminaexlux



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Growing Up, Just some headcanons, Lukanette is my brand, Minor Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Moving On, Past Relationship(s), lukanette endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feminaexlux/pseuds/feminaexlux
Summary: Adrien Agreste has a few things to learn
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	Body Language

Adrien Agreste wasn’t as oblivious as most people thought. He was sometimes unfortunately _ignorant_ of what was happening around him, but he’d never really been _trained_ to notice the same sort of things everyone else had learned to watch for naturally.

Like, body language.

He was taught how to hold himself up and walk the catwalk, how to pose, how to angle himself to show off whatever clothing or accessory he wore best. He’d been used to fangirls and boys throwing themselves at him and grabbing at his arms and latching on, like Chloe Bourgeois and Lila Rossi had (ugh). He’d also been used to people being nervous and weird and stammering around him due to his being a celebrity, which his very good friend and ex-girlfriend Marinette did when she was younger.

Once she had gotten over the celebrity thing and really started _talking_ with Adrien, he realized just how much she reminded him of Ladybug and how much he enjoyed his time with Marinette. That was pretty much how he got inspired to ask her out. Chat Noir and Ladybug didn’t have the time for romance, he finally realized. But Adrien? Adrien was going to _make_ time.

He’d kissed her. Danced with her. Spent hours together at runways and charity events and galas and red carpet shows. She seemed to enjoy it for the most part. Their dates were simple and cute and they held hands, fed each other, were adorable. She handed his ass to him in UMS when they were able to get some time away from the public and hang out in his room or with her parents. They were having so much fun together.

Then he noticed Marinette disappearing whenever an akuma attack happened. He’d always prioritize her safety over his transforming, but she kept running to the bathroom or tripping and falling behind or straight up ditching him whenever Hawkmoth attacked.

He wasn’t oblivious, he wasn’t going to _assume_ he’d gotten lucky enough to find the civilian side of Ladybug. But he, maybe for the first time in his life, had a bone deep _certainty_ that he’d found the girl he’d been in love with since he first became Chat Noir.

Some time later Gabriel got involved. It wasn’t the complete shut down that Marinette had worried about - that she’d be barred from seeing Adrien at all - but it was still… bad. Gabriel asked her to make small adjustments to her dress and style when she had been in public with Adrien. Gabe insisted she take classes on etiquette and protocol. He had Nathalie verify with the Dupain-Chengs that their bakery was up to code with the municipal inspector. Even had a few food critics show up to grade the bakery.

Marinette went back to being nervous then. Adrien should have seen it in the way she curled in on herself a little more, the way she was half facing away from him when Gabriel or Nathalie talked at them. Adrien should have seen it in the forced smiles she gave him when he asked her to join him in yet another ritzy, posh, elitist party thrown by the Bourgeois. How she kept her mouth shut when Chloe and Lila were still latching onto Adrien as if she hadn’t existed. How she seemed tired. Quieter. Less engaged.

He needed to fix that but he didn’t know how.

Then Marinette started saying no. She wasn’t going to participate in the events his father signed them up for. That she wanted to just hang out and avoid the public. Gabriel must have seen an opening because after that, Adrien had been booked back-to-back and rarely got to see Marinette at all. She’d gotten oddly silent.

She’d been bottling up her anger. It blew up a little when he showed up on her balcony as Chat Noir and tried to reveal himself as Adrien. _“How could you be so stupid?”_ she had yelled at him, covering his mouth to interrupt the detransformation. _“What do you think will happen after I know? It’s a **burden** to know! Can’t you see it’ll be harder on **me**?”_

That had been the beginning of the end, the fancy dates and gifts that Adrien was able to fight his father for just made Marinette withdraw further. No amount of talking had fixed it. _“It shouldn’t be this hard,”_ Marinette had said. _“I love you. But I don’t love what your life is. I can’t be a part of that.”_ She ended it gently, and that had been that.

Adrien was getting better at reading body language now. At insisting that Chloe and Lila and fans **DO NOT** touch him unless he said it was okay. He’d still been under his father’s thumb for all the events and photo shoots until he graduated Lycée. But the summer after he turned 18 he threw back the schedule at Nathalie, quit _Gabriel_ , became roommates with Nino, and got a ton of money for representing other companies his father would have had an aneurysm being associated with.

Initially Adrien thought he was fighting to get Marinette and Ladybug back.

Then he realized he was fighting for _himself_ , and it was incredibly gratifying.

He knew that Marinette had moved on. It had been 2 years. And it didn’t hit him until he had the unfortunate accident of patrolling nearby when he saw Ladybug pull down Viperion for a kiss, hook her leg over Viperion’s hip, and get pressed up against a wall. His heightened senses picked up her moaning while he fled as fast as he could. He’d laughed out loud when he landed at home. He really was _happy_ for Marinette.

**Author's Note:**

> So this kinda fell out for some reason. Y'all might be surprised that this was originally the start of a chapter to another fic but I felt this was good enough to stand alone here.


End file.
